Freedom is everyones right
by Christie2099
Summary: On the hunt for Saren, Commander Shepard answers a distress call. The line between organic and synthetic is blurred, as Shepard tries to deal with a mission where if she fails all of humanity is at risk.
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing, Mass effect belongs to Bioware. Metroid belongs to Nintendo.**

Chapter 1

Sarah Shepard leant over the desk in her quarters, the light of her lamp the only thing illuminating the room. She allowed the darkness to surround her as she mourned. She wanted to be alone.

"I'm sorry Ash"

She reflected on the mission that had been just a few hours ago, they had tracked the traitor Saren to a base on Virmire. They met up with captain Kirrahe and his squad and planned on moving in against Sarens base, using a modified Salarian drive core as a nuclear bomb. She had Ashley arm the bomb but Kaiden and the others were under fire at the AA guns. She had moved to support them but was confronted by Saren. The Turian had believed that he was resisting Sovereign's control and that if he helped the reapers then he may gain their favour. the idiot was slowly descending into madness because of Sovereign, the reaper. After she had confronted Saren Shepard had only enough time to extract one squad mate.

She chose Kaiden

Shepard massaged her temples "was I selfish, did I choose Kaiden because of how I felt about him", she didn't know. She wished she could have saved them both but there wasn't enough time. After returning to the Normandy Shepard had moved straight to her quarters, she didn't speak to anyone She had just wanted to be alone.

She heard the door chime. She ignored it, she wanted to be alone.

The door chimed again.

Sarah sighed and unlocked the door, she heard footsteps and out of the corner of her eye someone sitting on the desk. She turned to see Kaidens face looking directly into her eyes. He leaned forward and put an arm around her shoulders, bringing her close and the two fell into unspoken comfort.

"It's not your fault"

The words hurt, it was her fault. She chose him because she loved him. She felt a tear come to her eye. Kaiden pulled her close, letting her head rest against his chest as she tried to steady herself. The crew needed her to be strong. She knew who really was to blame, Saren. Now she could not lose, she wouldn't allow it, she wouldn't allow Ashley's sacrifice to be in vain, she would hunt the damn Turian to the ends of the galaxy if she had two.

Suddenly Jokers voice came over the comm.

"Commander, I know it's not the best time, but... we've picked up a distress call"

Shepard sighed and parted from her lovers comfort as she responded.

"Where's it coming from?" She struggled to keep her voice steady.

"Now that's the bad news, the call is coming from near the Perseus veil"

Shepard paused. The Geth remained behind the protection of the veil. It could be a trap by Saren or by the Geth alone however if the distress was real, people's lives may be endangered. Shepard sighed. If she didn't answer and it was genuine the people would die however if it was a trap, the crews life would be in jeopardy. She sighed as she made her decision.

"Joker plot a course, engage stealth systems"

"Aye aye commander, ETA three hours"

"I want the ground team gathered in the hanger in two"

"Yes commander" the comm shut off.

Shepard lent back in her chair and turned to face Kaiden, who stood up and planted a kiss on her forehead before moving towards the door. She smiled at him as he left and rose herself to put her amour back on.

"There ain't no rest for the wicked" she thought to herself as she began to place her amour back on.

She hoped she wasn't making a mistake

–-

An artificial breeze ran through the open plain, causing the trees to wave in it's wake. A lone figure sat at the base of a tree. A real one, not one of the artificial ones that had been created specifically for some of the subjects.

His eyes were closed as he inhaled and exhaled the air through his lungs and nostrils, in his mind he felt the connection to all of the being's linked to the collective conscience, he felt each of them whether they were on patrol or lying in the shade away from the artificial sunlight. He felt at piece, as if there was no such thing as war or death, pain or destruction however even now his conscience could feel the fear of the humans, they knew that he could end their lives in a heart beat.

He felt the vibrations in the air of something approaching, he smiled.

Five opened his eyes to reveal a small creature floating near him. It's dome like body was transparent green, with visible red nuclei. Two sets of Talon like mandibles extended from under its body.

The baby was calling, little screeches came from it as it approached. He lifted his arm and opened his hand and the infant gently descended and landed. Its talons blunt tips smoothly moved over his hand. He felt peace, he was here with his family.

Just as the infant screeched once more, Five stiffened. He felt it, a call for help. Five quickly accessed the stations network and discovered that the engineers had broke through his encryption. He quickly set up new firewalls and encryption codes. He stood up and moved towards the forest, the infant slowly moved towards the safety of it's brethren who played deeper in the forest.

Five had to admit he was a little surprised that they had broken through the Chozo codes, but he knew he would be discovered eventually. He moved swiftly down the path, he past swarms of the insects like Kihunters that patrolled the forests of the research station. He couldn't help but stop and admire the sight as their reflective wings caught the light. He snapped his eyes away from the site and quickly moved on. More humans were coming.

He had to prepare...

**There you have it, this is my first fic so it may turn horrible but hey I try. any feedback is welcome.**

**I made five male for a particular reason that will be revealed later on.**

**if anyone has advice on describing Metroid's I would appreciate the help.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don not own Mass effect or Metroid, the belong to Bioware and Nintendo respectively.**

**Chapter 2**

Shepard surveyed the ground team as they finished gathering their equipment and moved to great their commander. They did their best to hide their pain like she did, however the signs where there. The lack of conversation was noticeable as they gathered round for the mission breath.

Shepard sighed. They hadn't had time to give Ashley a proper funeral and Shepard had only sent the Alliance the mission report less than half an hour ago. She still hadn't sent a message to Ash's family yet, something that she would make sure she did when she got back from the mission.

As Tali joined them Shepard led the team to a console on the far side of the bay. As they past Ashley's locker. Shepard stopped for a minute as she took a silent moment of respect for her friend, someone who she knew would have followed her into hell and back. Shepard shook her head and moved towards the monitor where everyone was gathered, they had been polite and allowed her a moment.

"Grieve later, right know there may be people in danger" Sarah thought as she turned to her team. Their faces were now serious and Shepard wondered if Ashley's death had also hardened their resolve to complete their mission. Shepard pushed a few buttons and a picture came up on the monitor, it showed the source of the distress signal, a space station hovering over an ice ball of a planet. According to Tali the planet was called Cylosis.

"Three hours ago we received a distress call from this station, nobody is answering hails so we must assume they are in trouble"

Or dead.

"A station out here, this close to the veil?" questioned Garrus, the former C-sec officer observed the picture more closely.

"Who's is it, ours or the Geth's?"

"The station is definitely human made, however there is no IFF tag or records of it being in this area" Shepard had to admit it was suspicious but if there were people in trouble it was her duty to help.

"Commander, we're closer to the station and I think there's something you might want to see" Navigator Pressly's voice came over the comm. As the image magnified on the station, Shepard saw a frigate docked with the station. As the image grew closer, she saw what Pressly was referring to. On the side of the ship was a black and yellow diamond shaped insignia. Cerberus.

"What's a Cerberus ship doing here" Kaiden voiced what everyone else was thinking. As the image continued to magnify the ship was undoubtedly one of the pro human organisations vessels. Black and yellow lines rang along it's hull. The ground teams expression turned from surprise to disgust.

"Is the station Cerberus'?" enquired Dr Liara T'soni. Shepard looked at the young Asari and barely recognised her compared to the young shy woman who came aboard."I guess the death of Benezia and Ashley have affected her as well" Shepard thought as she turned back to the screen.

"I don't think it is Cerberus', if it was there would be Insignia's all over it to announce their claim" Garrus was right, Cerberus would let people know that this station was their property.

Shepard didn't like it, something was definitely off about the situation. A distress call and Cerberus' presence meant they were probably the cause of the problem.

"The distress call has stopped transmitting so who ever attacked the station is probably still aboard"

"commander that's the strange part" Jokers voice came over the comm this time "the station has defence guns but there's no debris, no signs of battle, like there was no attack"

"which means that the station may have been infiltrated and the defence guns disabled allowing Cerberus a clean entrance" Kaiden finished putting his scenario together and it made sense.

"Which means that Cerberus is probably still on-board, huh good I can do with a good fight" Wrex bashed his fist's together in a show of strength, a grin came over his scared face at the thought of beating Cerberus soldier's into pulps of flesh and gore.

"Alright lets get up to the airlock and prepare for a quick departure, the Normandy won't last long against those guns" at Shepard's command the squad headed for the elevator and headed for the CIC. As the team filed out and walked up to the cockpit, Joker turned to them "Commander something is definitely off, the defence systems are still down and I'm getting no energy signatures, it's like the stations main power grid is down"

Shepard's suspicions were confirmed Cerberus would have reactivated the guns the moment they claimed the station.

"Right lets make this quick people, I don't want those cannons turning on while we're a sitting duck"

Joker steered the Normandy into position alongside one of the stations airlocks. The expert pilot's hand danced over the console as he attached the Normandy to the station. When the green decompression light flashed, Shepard and her team moved through the airlock and onto the station. The Normandy detached and flew off to a safer distance but remained close in case the team needed to get out in a hurry.

Shepard stared into the darkness, she activated the flash light on the front of her assault rifle and signalled the team to follow her lead.

"Wrex up front with me, Garrus, Kaiden watch our backs, Liara and Tali watch our flanks"

The team complied as Wrex's huge form came into view beside her. As they moved down the corridor Shepard felt like she was being watched, she tried to dismiss it but she couldn't keep the feeling from her mind. She double checked her corners and kept her eyes open, the red flashing emergency light kept bringing the station's corridors in and out of sight. The only reliable source was their flash lights, but Shepard had a gut feeling that they were being watched from the shadows by unseen eye's. She swallowed her fear and looked to her left to see Wrex's helmet. By the way he moved his head Shepard guessed he was sniffing the air to check for anything unusual. Worryingly he shook his head and kept walking. He couldn't smell anything.

So why did she have a feeling that they had unwanted company. The feeling only intensified as they moved deeper into the station and Shepard allowed the darkness to swallow her up once again.

–

Five watched through the security feeds as the intruders entered the station. They had entered without interference, thanks to an EMP one of the last marines had set off before the Zebesian's had given him a gruesome death. Five ran through the possibilities of how to deal with them. Kill them now?. He quickly pushed the thought from his mind, they had done nothing to him and his brethren and so deserved the chance to leave without confrontation. But he felt he should have something in place if they did become a problem.

He quickly accessed the collective and sent his mind to locate one in particular, Five met an aggressive mind as he delivered a message to him, he still wasn't aware how he had got into the archive but he would address that later. Right now he needed someone who knew how to ambush prey.

–

Deep in the station a large creature moved through the station patrolling for any filthy humans who might try and endanger his kin. Kin. It was still a word he wasn't used to but whether he liked it or not, he was still connected to them. He looked over his shoulder, he couldn't see them but he knew they were there. The Ghalmanian's where using their camouflage to blend into their surroundings, meaning anyone thinking that he was alone and try to attack him would be unprepared for the response of multiple attacks.

Suddenly he stopped as he sensed Five's voice echo in his mind.

"we have intruders. Survey for now"

He growled as he began to move to the upper levels to observe his quarry, the emergency light catching his purple scales and white fur. He didn't share Fives view on humans being innocent, to him all were guilty.

To Ridley all humans were enemies...

**DUN DUN DDDUUUUHH.**

**Well, Shepard's in trouble, Ridley is on the prowl.**

**The first clue to fives future identity was given a little earlier than I wanted but, oh well, and before I get the fact pointed out that the certain someone's gender and species hasn't been confirmed there are a few pointers for his species, as for genders, well this is fanfiction, right. how the stations workers got their hand on these specimens will be addressed next chapter. it'll be my first attempt to crossing lore, lets hope it ends ok.**

**Thank you for taking the time to read this story and feedback is wanted. Ridley worked with mother brain so there is no reason he shouldn't help Five, but don't worry, Ridley is not tame at all. And he will be ripping people apart sooner or later.**


	3. Chapter 3

Once again, Mass effect and Metroid belong to Bioware and Nintendo

THIS CHAPTER IS A BIT GOREY, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Chapter 3

The team was being stalked. Alarm bells were ringing in Shepard's mind as she led the team down another Corridor. She hated this, not being able to see what lay in the dark, feeling that every shadow could hide an enemy.

"Ground party to Normandy come in" static filled the comm's. Dammit.

"Must be some sort of interference" Garrus commented.

"but main powers out, unless it's from the hull"

No contact with the Normandy meant that if they got into trouble they were on their own. She could see everyone else was on edge. Tali was constantly looking upwards. Shepard wondered if it was Tali being cautious or paranoid, however Tali wasn't the only one. Garrus looked as if he was about to sprain something, he was on high alert and didn't want to be taken by surprise and Shepard couldn't blame him.

As they turned a corner something changed about the station as the corridors opened into a large room with three other corridors, all leading in different directions. Gratings where missing from the floor, revealing the pipelines beneath. The part that caught Shepards attention was that the grating looked like it hard be broken open upwards, as if something had came through the floor. Liara saw it too and started to pass over the floor with her flash light. The bulkheads had indents in them, the lights passing over them as Shepard approached.

"These aren't bullet holes" she thought as Wrex investigated the punctures.

"looks like something used claws or talons to cling to the wall"

Shepard felt her gut tighten. Something with claws could mean some kind of animal or creature. Which further convinced Shepard that they were being stalked.

She signalled to move forward and as they did something caught her attention on the floor. The crimson substance was illuminated by their flashlights.

Blood.

"Keehlah"

Shepard turned to find Tali had followed the trail and came across...

"Oh my god"

A bloody mess littered the floor, hunks of flesh and armour scattered the area. Blood plastered the walls and floor, but Shepard's attention was caught by something else. A body lay on the floor. Or what was left of it. The armour and under suit had been shredded.

"The poor SOB" Shepard thought.

"Goddess"

Liara turned away from the sight as Garrus and Kaiden moved to investigate the remains.

"The guy's been mauled" Garrus stated as Kaiden further investigated the body.

"Well, he's Cerberus" Kaiden had ripped off a piece of the uniform and handed it to Shepard. As she examined it she could clearly make out the Cerberus insignia, stained in blood. She handed it back to Kaiden and examined more of the area.

She found one hallway barricaded off, a sentry turret mounted just above the barricade. The barricade looked undisturbed. Shepard looked around, this had been a last stand. The other two had also been barricaded, but Shepard guest that these ones had been manned, due to the ammo crates and good cover.

"It looks like Cerberus were attacked from the flanks" Garrus assessed as he joined her.

"Looks like we're not just dealing with simple Varren, whoever attacked them knew to avoid the turret, it's not fired a shot" Liara had joined in trying to get away from the site.

"Shepard" Shepard turned to see Tali beckoning to her. As she approached she noticed a terminal on the wall. As she approached Tali activated her Omni-tool.

"Powers out but I may be able to find something" Tali started tapping buttons on the tool and a few seconds later the screen started to flicker. Tali started to surf through the menu's. Muttering under her breath as she worked.

Shepard cast her glance around, she felt vulnerable out here. Kaiden had joined them and he gave her a nod. The reassurance was comforting but didn't dampen the alarm bells in her head.

"I've got something but it's only audio"

The team gathered round the console as Tali tapped a button.

"All right lets reinforce that side and..."

a blood curling scream and a roar drowned out the voice.

"Shit they got the Lance"

"OPEN FIRE!"

Gun fire cut out the cries and screams of other voices.

There was a loud bang.

"HOLY CRAP THEIR COMING OUT THE FLOOR"

Inhuman roars were heard and more screams before the log cut out.

There was silence as everyone processed what they had just heard.

"Spirits" Garrus muttered.

"there's something else, I think it's a map" Tali quickly accessed the terminal again and her Omni-tool lit up, as she examined the map she noticed something.

"Shepard someone's tampered with the map"

"In what way" the commander enquired, moving up beside the Quarian.

"it's as it someone has erased all details about the station except for this... path"

Shepard saw it. Every room was blank except for a path that led to a large room. Warning bell's went off.

"A trap"

"Or someone is trying to tell us where they are"

Tali made a point but Shepard had a hard time believing that this was anything other than a trap. To follow this path they would have to take the corridor to the left of the Terminal, which was only barricaded with metal boxes. Then they would have to take a left and head through what looked like a hanger deck before continuing along until they reached the large room. She didn't like it but if this was survivors trying to tell them where they were, then she had to take a look. She ordered the team to scavenge what they could.

Shepard wheeled round. She thought she'd heard something. She scanned the darkness before returning back to the group and moved to an ammo crate.

"Mind don't get paranoid on me now"

As she started to search a crate, behind her a pair of orange eyes surveyed the group.

–

Ridley hissed to himself, he had almost given himself away and Like any great hunter he wished to play with his prey. As he continued to watch them, Ridley felt his body ache, his purple scales were beginning to malt. He dug his claws into one of the bulkheads, being careful so they wouldn't hear.

"Why is Five directing them towards the other humans" he thought savagely. Ridley had hoped that after the revolt, he would have been allowed his revenge for what the humans had done to him. The experiments to see if he could become a better weapon were painful, and Ridley had sworn to return the favour. But Five had commanded that they be left alone.

Ridley had to give Five a little credit. If it hadn't been for Five's strategies then the revolt would have ended badly and Ridley would still be restrained, being poked and prodded by the humans.

Ridley would have his revenge, that he was sure off, he was just biding his time. He knew that if he took on Five now he would be quickly overwhelmed. Even though he had a puny human body, he still had control over all of the creatures on the station.

And her.

"Five wants to wait and plan the attack, let him. my target is ALL humans"

The group started to move off, Ridley held back and but after they were almost out of sight, he moved quickly, moving from shadow to shadow.

–

Shepard, reformed the team as they carried on down the corridor, double checking corners and the floor, she wouldn't allow them to get snuck up on. They turned the next left and were met by a sealed door. Shepard ordered Tali to open it while everyone else watched the corridor. Every shadow seemed to mutate into an unknown enemy as the flash lights cut through the darkness.

The door opened and the team advanced. They passed through the observation deck of the hanger bay and something caught Shepard's eye. A ship.

It was large, bigger than a Kodiak shuttle, a pair of wings reached forward, flanking the main hull and cockpit. A pair of engines where on the end of each wing. The main hull was curved and smooth, finishing off in a point between the back engines. Shepard couldn't help but notice the ship looked slightly avian, it's cockpit finishing in a point, like a beak.

"She's beautiful" Shepard whispered

"Joker would love this" Kaiden had joined her.

"What is it?" Garrus asked as the rest joined them.

"Some kind of prototype?" Shepard wondered if this was some sort of new fighter. But something in the design screamed that it was not human.

The team turned away from the masterpiece of a ship and started to continue onwards. They proceeded with care as they approached the last room on the map. Shepard had the team perform breach manoeuvres on the sealed door, with Tali preparing to open the door, Liara and Shepard on one side and Kaiden, Wrex and Garrus on the other. When Tali finished hacking the door she joined Liara and Shepard. Shepard raised her fist and began to count down.

Three, the team readied themselves getting ready to sweep the room. Shepard activated her tech armour.

Two, Tali had her finger above the button that would open the door.

One, Liara, Wrex, Kaiden and Shepard started to glow blue as they readied their biotics.

She closed her fist. Tali hit the button and the doors flew open, in one fluid motion the team moved in and scanned the area.

Only to be met by ready guns.

A stalemate, neither side lowered their weapons. Shepard noticed that there were only three people bearing guns, each off them bore an avenger assault rifle. She looked up to find two turrets aiming at them and over in the corner a group of people wearing lab coats had their back against the wall.

Shepard decided to try a more peaceful tack. She raised her Carnifex pistol and palm out and slowly holstered it. Her team followed suit, each of them holstering their weapons, Wrex being the last to do so. Shepard would happily bet that there was a snarl on his face.

She waited.

Slowly the defenders holstered their guns. One stepped forwards, eyeing them suspiciously.

"Who are you and what are you doing here"

"I am commander Shepard, I came to answer your distress call"

The man paused, he seemed hesitant, as if he was hiding something. After a second he opened his Omni-tool, turning off the turrets before shutting and relocking the door.

"Security chief Nelson"

Shepard approached the chief, one question burning in her mind.

"Now would someone mind explaining what is going on here"

**Well slightly behind, just means that the lore will have to be addressed next chapter.**

**I chose Samus' ship from prime 3 as I thought it looked awesome and is my favourite ship in the metroid series. Imagine this ship but with the ablative hull armour from Star Trek voyager, I don't know if I described it very well, but that's what I was going for.**

**The rate I upload chapters will probably depend on my course work, so I may find it sustainable to upload one every day, if not, rest assure I will not abandon this story, as I have be threatened with being kidnapped and forces to keep writing if I do stop.**

**Once again feedback is wanted. Next chapter Shepard finds out what's going on.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I would like to thank blaiseing fire, for his continued support.**

**The usual, ME belongs to Bioware, Metroid to nintendo.**

Chapter 4

Shepard's question hanged in the air for a few seconds. Shepard was getting annoyed, she wanted to know what her team was up against.

One of the scientist from the back started to moves forward, cautiously approaching the group. She stopped in front of them, the poor woman was shaking. She was trying to keep calm but her eyes betrayed her, revealing lack of sleep and living in constant fear.

"I'm..." she faltered breaking, eye contact with the team, after a moment of recomposing herself she continued, a little stronger this time.

"I am Lauren Dunn, executive producer of the station"

Shepard looked around. Where was the director. Shepard felt she already knew what the answer was and decided not to ask. The woman was traumatised enough.

"Dunn would you mind telling me what's going on on this station"

Chief Nelson immediately interveined.

"I'm afraid that's classified"

Shepard turned and glared at him.

"I can't help you unless I know what's going on"

"Yes you can, you can get us off this station"

Shepard was growing impatient with him. She couldn't just flee like Nelson, she had to make sure that what was on this station didn't become a threat to anyone else.

"Enough, Nelson!"

Shepard almost jumped at Lauren's sudden outburst. She eyed the woman and saw she was clenching her fist, determined not to break down.

"Producer Dunn, what's on this station is classified and.."

"Enough people have already died for this damn project to remain classified"

Lauren was not backing down, Shepard moved over to her and placed herself between, her and Nelson. In case he tried anything.

"Lauren, please tell me what's going on" Shepard tried a different tact. Nelson muttered under his breath.

"This is on your head, Lauren"

He turned away and left to check on the turrets.

Shepard lead the woman over to a seat made out of crates and sat her down, the team joined them. Shepard didn't want to interrogate someone who was in this state, but she needed answers.

"Start from the beginning"

Lauren took a breath.

"We came to this planet because, intelligence had detected a signal while patrolling for Geth activity, when we arrived we discovered the signal was form a buoy that had crashed on the surface of the planet. Due to the unusually high radiation levels from the planet we had to wait for a better equipped team"

"Shepard, the radiation is probably what is affecting the comms" Tali suggested.

"I take it the station is equipped to handle the radiation?" Shepard asked turning back to Lauren.

"Yes the station was built to survive the conditions after we found the archive"

"The archive?"

"Yes, when we went down to the planet we found the buoy. After excavating it from the ice we discovered it was Prothean, it contained a message but we couldn't understand it"

"Shepard, the Cipher" Liara said in anticipation. Being an archaeologist she barely contain her excitement at the though of another Prothean relic.

Shepard nodded

"Could you play it for us"

Dunn brought up her Omni-tool and started tapping buttons.

"I'm afraid some of the message has been corrupted but it doesn't matter, we don't have any way of translating it"

"Well professor looks like it's your lucky day" Shepard said.

Lauren just nodded and pressed a button.

A sound started to play, there were occasionally changes in tone and pitch but that was it. The team turned to Shepard who was still absorbing parts of the message.

"Commander?" Kaiden's voice was worried as he watched her, not used to seeing her like this.

She came around, looking at him, their eyes met. Shepard broke away to look at the group.

"Well it's not much but from what I heard it sounded like a warning"

"It said that the planet was under quarantine, that drastic measures had to be taken to fight, something, the message didn't say what. It also said the planet should be avoided"

"Do you think the drastic measures they referred to, was some kind of weapon" Liara queried trying to make sense of the message.

"A planet wide nuclear winter, that caused the entire planet to freeze up, what could have pushed the Prothean's to such desperate measures"

"First a warning about the reapers, now a warning that they had to use massive nukes to kill something, you know I wonder if they will ever leave us something nice, like a recipe for the ultimate cookie" Garrus joked trying to lighten the mood.

"So what is the archive" Kaiden brought their attention back to Lauren's story.

"After the other team arrived with better equipment, we went down to the planet. We found the buoy but we also came across a small energy signature. We followed it and ended up having to dig down through the ice. That's when we found a cavern, as we explored we found this frozen lizard like creature.

"what did it look like" Shepard asked

"it was big, had massive wings and looked like a pterodactyl, we tried thawing it out, but it just disintegrated. We managed to recover some DNA but that was it"

"something doesn't just disintegrate after being frozen, there's something your not telling us" Shepard didn't want to harm the woman, she was just fed up with people trying to pull the wool over her eyes.

Lauren faltered again, clearly hoping that they wouldn't have seen the flaw.

"The creature's, energy …. had been drained... like it's life energy had been drained out of it, and only a husk was left"

"And this piece of information wasn't mentioned because.."

Lauren looked worried, she was fidgeting and her eyes were going around the room. She didin't want to tell them.

"Shepard!"

Great, Nelson's back.

"Look Nelson this going to end one way or another. If that means I have to knock you on your ass then so be it"

Nelson looked like he was ready to pull his gun out, hands twitching. Wrex beat him to it, the ageing Krogan had his shotgun aimed at Nelson, his finger on the trigger. Garrus approached him and stripped him of his weapons, as Wrex lead him away.

This was taking too long she needed to speed this up. So Shepard decided that she would get her answer later.

"So what is the archive?"

Lauren turned back to them, seeing that they were wanting to get to the point.

"The archive was like a, library, genetic material stored and catalogued. There we found DNA for Dozens of species"

"I can see where this is going"

"We brought them aboard, our orders were too see if they were useful as bio-weapons"

"You knowingly broke council law, they forbid the use of bio-weapons, just who exactly do you work for?" Shepard's temper was rising, as a Spectre it was her job to deal with this sort of thing. "Oh the irony" she thought to herself.

Lauren looked around, desperately trying to find to change the topic. Shepard sighed again, she wasn't going to get much out of a traumatised person. She would deal with it later, she got back to the matter at hand.

"you must have had security measures?"

"Yes, we did but the creatures we created went berserk. That's when we went back to the archive, if someone left these things then they must have had a way to control them. And that's when we found him"

"him?"

Dunn head turned to Tali and then looked away.

"Yes we found Five, an AI"

Tali almost exploded.

"WHAT YOU FOUND AN AI, KEEHLAH DON'T TELL ME YOU USED IT!"

Lauren looked taken aback at Tali's outburst, but Shepard agreed with the Quarian, AI's on their own where dangerous, but to use one from an unknown alien archive, downright stupid.

"We had too, we weren't getting results"

Shepard got ready to restrain Tali.

"YOU STUPID BOSH'TET, DID YOU LEARN NOTHING FROM MY PEOPLE'S EXPERIENCE WITH THE GETH!"

"At first we kept it isolated, but then it started talking and communicating with us. We tried using Five to control the creatures and it worked Fives presence within the collective brought peace"

"The collective?" Shepard asked partly so Tali couldn't have another go at her.

"yes, from what we could tell all the creatures were linked in this sort off hive mind"

"Great you just gave an AI an army" growled Garrus, Wrex rejoined them, having put Nelson in a storage locker.

"What's this about some stupid Pyjak giving an AI an army" the battle-masters gaze turned on Dunn, who flinched.

"What went wrong?" Shepard wanted details but time was short, this was someone's investment and she expected that this someone would probably come with a merc army to check up on it.

"Five started to develop... emotions"

"Impossible an AI's a programme, it can't have emotions" Kaiden was also starting to get annoyed at the lack of progress.

"We fought that as well, but when we looked at his programme we found it was changing, evolving. That's when we received a message that a team was being sent to rewrite it"

"Oh here we go" Tali said her fist clenched at the scientists stupidity.

"When the team arrived, Five ordered the creatures to revolt, he slaughtered the team that had been sent and turned on us, but we managed to hide from him in here"

Something didn't add up, the damage Shepard had seen the creatures do, meant they could have easily breached the room. Had Five spared them?. No, why would he. There was a lot of the puzzle missing.

"But you have to stop him Shepard, he's out of control, it seams all humans have become a target for him, I think he might try to get revenge on humanity"

Shepard froze, the stakes have been risen. If Lauren spoke the truth then the Alliance may be one of Fives targets. She had to deal with Five or humanity may be on the brink of extinction. She looked to her team, she knew they were as suspicious as she was however they agreed on one thing, Five had to be stopped.

"Where is Five?"

"In the... main sector of the station... level 5, central operations, Your going after him?"

"someone has to"

"I suppose it's Just... be careful commander, he has full control of the facility"

Lauren's Omni-tool flashed and Shepard's pinged, she brought it up and found that Lauren had uploaded the complete map. If I had been the survivors who put the map onto the terminal then why not give them the whole map. Wait couldn't have done it, could he, why had he intentionally directed Shepard to the scientists. This also confirmed that he was watching them.

"All right, we're going to let Nelson out, he'll protect you while we go and deal with five"

It took a bit of work, but they convinced Nelson of the plan, they would deal with Five while he protected the Scientist's. Shepard and her team readied themselves, Tali was tinkering her Omni-tool to see if it could be more affective against anything Five might try and use against them. While Garrus modified his rifle trying to upgrade his weapon to penetrate thick hide.

They team nodded they were ready. Shepard took a moment to look among them, once again she was leading them into hell. She though of Ashley and what she would have though of the situation, her voice echoing in her head.

"we'll do what needs to be done skipper"

Shepard pushed the thought aside, the mission was too important. The fate of humanity could be decided here. "All in a days work" she thought statistically as they exited back out the door, a large thud confirmed that the door was sealed. They lighted their flash lights and with a nod, they once again moved into the depths.

–

When the commander left Lauren dropped her disguise.

"great now she had an alliance poster girl, and spectre on her hands" she turned towards Nelson.

"Did the message get through" her voice was stronger, than that of her wimpy disguise.

"Affirmative, the message reached home base and may I say an excellent performance" Nelson confirmed.

"Perfect, now it doesn't matter if Shepard or Five survive, the relief force will soon be here to clean up the mess"

Hopefully the two of them would destroy each other. The specimens were replaceable and the commanders death would be blamed on the Geth.

"Shepard will probably find out the truth"

"Yes but it won't matter, as by the end she will be dead"

**WELL, WELL, WELL**

**deceit and lies, will Shepard find the truth, come on it's Shepard.**

**I'm trying to move the story along, don't worry soon the foolish humans will realised they messed with the wrong space pirate, Ridley will soon strike at his prey and when he finds those responsible for his torment he will tear them apart.**

**Next chapter the crew run into the fire, and get their asses handed to them on a silver platter.**


	5. Chapter 5

once again ME to bioware, Metroid to Nintendo

Chapter 5

Shepard lead the team down the corridor. Lauren's words still burning in her mind. An AI with emotions, that was a problem, it made them more unpredictable and the fact that Five was an aliens AI of unknown origins made the situation look worse.

As they turned the corridor towards the stair case that would take them to the main sector, Garrus moved up beside Shepard, his helmet hiding the frown on his face.

"Shepard, the scientist story, doesn't add up"

"I know Garrus, she's hiding information from us as well, she never mentioned what had drained the life of that lizard creature she described"

Shepard didn't like going in blind, and she knew all too well that what ever had drained the lizard could be on this station, whatever it was , it was something she was sure she wouldn't want to meet in a crammed room and corridors.

As they ascended the stairs, the familiar feeling of being watched returned to her.

"Let's double check our corners and watch our sixes" Kaiden was having the same uneasy feeling.

As they moved up, Shepard made sure she had someone on over-watch. She didn't want what ever was following them to be able to get the drop on them in a crammed space. They reached the main sector and had to force the doors open. Open to a scene of carnage.

This part of the station was a wreck, blast and scorch marks dominated the walls, along the familiar sight of blood. Huge slash marks covered the bulkheads, windows of labs where smashed, some bodies lay broken while others where once again mauled.

"I guess this was were it all started" Shepard agreed with Tali's analysis. Five would have wanted the team to have been in an open area but a safe distance away from himself before he attacked, allowing him to cut them down with ease.

"Shepard" she turned to see Garrus kneeling beside one of the bodies.

"Looks like our little station has a relationship with Cerberus"

He pointed to one of the dead team members, his blood stood out on his white armour, but the Cerberus insignia was still noticeable.

"So if the stations Cerberus, why did none of the scientists have a Cerberus badge, and why does the station not have any either"

Shepard shook her head, there was something else going on.

As Garrus re-joined them. Shepard heard something. A growl.

"Wrex please tell me that was your stomach"

The Krogan shook his head. With that Shepard whipped around and found herself staring into a pair of orange eyes. She froze and felt the rest of the team form up around her, staring at the murderous orbs. They reached for their weapons, but then the eye's vanished, melting back into the darkness.

"COWARD!" Wrex's voice boomed.

After a minute, Shepard ordered the team towards the second set of stairs. As they moved up she noticed the team was incredibly tense, expecting the owner of the eyes to burst out from any corner. Once again a question was on her mind

"why didn't it attack"

They opened the door to level five and spread out covering the area and looking for any signs of attack.

"Why is five letting us get this close, does he want to get killed"

Then she heard it. Footsteps. Shepard signalled the team to cover the door, they kept themselves in a semi circle, two meters away from the door, their weapons ready. The footsteps drew nearer, Shepard readied her biotics, a slight blue glow covering her body. Then the door opened.

She had expected a monster.

A bloodthirsty beast that would come charging at them.

But of all the things she could have bet on she hadn't thought of one.

A human.

Shepard had to blink a few times to check she wasn't imagining. When she was sure that he was a human she lowered her weapon.

He looked round about Kaidens age, with short brown hair, he was slim but Shepard reckoned he wasn't weak, he stood about a few inches taller than her. He wore a lab coat, with black thermals underneath and a pair of boots. He seamed to be a perfect male human specimen, Shepard would be lying if she said she thought he wasn't good-looking. However the thing that caught her attention the most was his eyes, they were a luminescent blue, they looked unnatural.

Shepard stepped forward, and to her surprise he wasn't reacting, just watching them, she felt like he was seeing if they were a threat, before she could talk he spoke, his voice almost echoing, but in her mind.

"Hello commander Shepard"

She froze, he knew who she was, she felt at a disadvantage. But he continued.

"Garrus Vakarin, Liara T'soni, Tali Zor'ah, Kaiden Alenko and Urdnot Wex"

She saw them all stiffen, he knew each and every one of them. Shepard felt now at more of a disadvantage. All the time she spent thinking, he was watching them, examining them, she felt as if his eye's pierced right through her and saw everything. Eventually Shepard brought herself around.

"You know us, so who are you"

He smiled and he didn't lose any confidence.

"My name is Five"

And in that instant, every gun in the room was pointed at him. Shepard was shocked. Despite all the weapons that could end him..

Five didn't even flinch.

–

Out side the station Jeff Sat in his seat, if he could pace he would be, he hadn't heard from Shepard since she entered the station. He felt useless.

Suddenly alarms started bleeping and Joker was brought out of his thoughts.

"Contacts emerging from FTL" Pressly's voice filled the Comm.

Suddenly, three ships dropped out of FTL. One bore the Symbols of Cerberus, while the other two bore.. the alliance?

"what the..."

Joker never got to finish, as Pressly shouted.

"one is on an intercept course, the other two are moving towards the station"

Joker saw one of the alliance ships peel of and move towards them.

"Sir they're hacking into our comms"

Then a new voice joined the comms.

"SSV Normandy you are to stand down, prepare to be boarded"

Joker felt the Normandy rock, and saw the screen flare, drive disabled.

"Well Shit"

**I know it's not much but tests are coming up and I felt my readers needed something, to make the wait more bearable.**

**So five has revealed himself and a fleet has come to that station, but who are they, you'll have to wait and see.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Once again ME belongs to Bioware. Metroid to Nintendo.**

Chapter 6

Five stood facing the Commander, guns pointed directly at him. He could feel Ridley's presence but made sure that the former space pirate lord knew to stay hidden unless this meeting came to violence. He didn't agree with Fives methods but Ridley decided to obey after being reminded that they did nothing to him.

"All right, but if it comes to a fight then I'm taking the Krogan" Ridley obviously hadn't taken too kindly to being called a coward.

Five turned his attention back to the commander. He would let her make the first move. After all he was only stalling until the people responsible for his brethren's torment arrived, then he would let them have their revenge.

–

Shepard was uneasy, normally when someone had a gun pointed at them they would start talking or begging for their lives. But Five just stood there, like he was in control of the situation.

"It is an it" she had to remind himself.

Five didn't seem like he intended to start talking so Shepard, decided to start with something simple. Like how an AI had a body. An organic body.

"What are you"

Five remained motionless, a few seconds passing before he spoke.

"I assume the scientist's have already told you what I am"

It's been watching us since we came aboard.

"Yeah, they said you were an AI, But AI don't have bodies" Tali's voice was full of hatred.

"Well she is a Quarian" Shepard thought. She wondered if it was a good idea bringing Tali with her, her prejudice towards AI's may affect this negotiation. At least Shepard hoped it was a negotiation. She wasn't sure any more, if Five hated humans then why hasn't it attacked her or Kaiden.

"That is because I am an Aurora unit, unit 003, I am an organic supercomputer"

The crew was shock. An organic super computer?

"My function was to monitor the archive"

"Why?" the archive seemed to be the centre of all this. Shepard wanted to know what was so important about it.

"So that in the case of a Genocide scenario, the quarantine of the planet would not be breached"

"So, your a Prothean creation" Liara looked hopeful.

Five chuckled to himself.

"No Doctor T'soni. My creators where not the Protheans. But the Chozo"

The Chozo?. Shepard could see Liara was disappointed at the revelation, but clearly interested at the thought of another species, who's technology seemed to surpass the Prothean's.

"Who are the Chozo"

"The Chozo were a race of bird like humanoids. They prized knowledge and exploration over all else"

Five brought up his Omni-toll, Shepard readied her pistol, as did Wrex, Garrus and Kaiden. Tali hadn't lowered her weapon since meeting Five. A beep came from Shepard's Omni-tool. She slowly opened it, not lowering her weapon. A picture came up and Shepard heart almost skipped a beat. The picture showed a large bird, that stood straight and had arms as well as a pair of wings sprouting from it's back. The Chozo wore a suit of beautifully crafted armour, Shepard recognised the style. It was the same as the ship they had seen.

"The Chozo were peaceful, and believed in the gaining of knowledge"

"So when did you rebel against them" Tali snorted.

Five looked confused.

"Oh come on, their peaceful and you slaughtered people"

If Five was annoyed at Tali's Comment he didn't show it. He remained silent.

"So where are the Chozo?" Shepard was keen on trying to not cause a conflict.

"They ascended"

"What?"

Shepard was confused what did he mean by ascended.

"The Chozo gained a form beyond physical being and left this plain of reality, they left behind many scriptures and temples, some of which have been mistaken for Prothean"

"So they left you behind, so without your master's leash you decided to what, start wars" Garrus didn't trust Five, how could Shepard expect any of her crew to trust him. To them he is the council's worst fear, the thing they have been taught to hate. A fully sentient AI.

Yet Five remained calm.

"My duty was to important for me to be deactivated, and I could not have started war's, the blockers in my "Brain" stopped me from feeling emotions"

"What was your duty" Shepard was curious to know why he was left in the archive.

"To ensure that the quarantine of planet SR388 wasn't compromised"

"You mean Cylosis?"

"Yes"

"Why was it under quarantine"

Five stood their, he looked as if he was considering his response. Eventually he sighed.

"Well, lying to you isn't going to help my case. The planet was under quarantine due to an indigenous life form known as the X-parasite"

Shepard was stunned, he was trying to be honest?. This definitely didn't match the character Lauren has described, unless it was an act in which case she would give him an Oscar. Five continued.

"The X-parasite, would infect a host and replicate it's DNA, it would gain access to the hosts memories and kill the host I the process. The Chozo deemed the parasite too dangerous to be left alone. The Chozo were still peaceful and so created the Metroid, a creature that could drain the life energy of the X-Parasites, and act as their natural predators, and so brought SR388's Ecosystem into balance"

That caught Shepard attention, these Metroid's must have been the creatures responsible for draining that creature Lauren described.

"But something went wrong didn't it?" Shepard had a hunch of what happened on Cylosis, but she wanted to be sure.

Yes"

Five trailed off, as if remembering what had happened.

"The Protheans discovered the planet, when they came down they discovered the Metroid's and X-parasites, they saw them as a threat and used a powerful nuclear device to eradicate them both and placed the planet into a nuclear winter"

"I'm still puzzled as to why the Chozo, used the Metroid, isn't that just replacing one parasite with another?"

"The Chozo knew the ecosystem would evolve to counter the Metroid and keep the world in balance, the Chozo where concerned that the parasite would get off world and infect future galactic civilizations"

"Then what was your duty?"

"In the event of the Metroid's being wiped out and the parasites being left unchecked, I was to release a new population of Metroid's and repair any harm done to the ecosystem"

"So why did you need a ship?" Liara had remained quiet during the exchange, but had made a valid point. If Five was to remain on planet why was there a ship.

"The ship belonged to a Chozo engineer known as the saviour, before the Chozo ascended the archive was attacked and partially damaged, I managed to hold the attackers off but I couldn't get the main door shut. If it didn't shut it then the Archive would not be able to achieve a cryo-state, which would mean that the DNA and the recorded specimens may not have survived. The saviour bought me time to shut the main doors, using an ancient Chozo battle suit to hold off the attackers. I remember his pain"

Five looked pained at the memory.

"What do you mean? It caused him pain to fight?"

"To ensure that they would not return to their warrior past, the Chozo, put mental blocks, so they could never harm another being. The saviour was almost immobilised from the pain of fighting off the attackers"

Shepard found herself admiring the saviour. He knowingly went through pain to ensure that Archive was sealed properly.

"Well commander now that the history lesson is out of the way what are we going to do about him" Kaiden looked as if he didn't care what Five said. Kaiden still held him responcible for what happened on the station.

"He slaughtered innocents" Garrus seemed to agree with Kaiden.

Five turned to them

"The scientist's were hardly innocent, they inflicted tortures upon my brethren"

"So that Justified you murdering them" Kaiden was getting angry, a blue aura started to appear around him.

Five started to looked annoyed.

"So torture is acceptable?"

"No it isn't acceptable, but neither is murder" Shepard was trying to regain control of the situation. She wanted this to end peacefully, but somehow she doubted it.

"I say we end this know, that'll stop all this" Kaiden and Garrus looked in agreement about the course of action, Wrex was silent. shepard reckoned he was thinking of Five's task, and how similar it was to he Salarian use of the Genophage.

Five stared at them as if he couldn't believe something.

"You really think that this project will end because of my death?. You really think that Cerberus and the Alliance will just stop because you destroyed me?"

Shepard froze. The alliance?.

"Your lying, the alliance would never allow a project like this to happen. The use of bio-weapons goes against the council law" Kaiden snarled

"Are you really so naïve to think that everyone in your alliance agrees with the council?. There are many in the Alliance that believe that Humanity should never have bowed down to them"

"YOUR WRONG" Kaiden roared. Shepard watched him, the Alliance was everything to him. He didn't want to believe that the Alliance would get involved in something like this. She wondered how it would affect him

"We'll see"

Five once again just watched them. Shepard quickly thought of how to save the situation. She didn't want to believe Five, but was he right, could there be people in the Alliance who thought Humanity should never have bowed down to the council. Then a though crossed her mind.

"You kept Lauren Dunn and the other scientists alive so you could bring the people who were responsible out of hiding"

The mention of Lauren caught Five's attention.

"She is alive?"

His voice was bitter, full of hatered.

"Yes, I take it your not a big fan off her"

Five snarled, the first true emotion Shepard had see from him.

"She betrayed them"

His voice was full of hate, but also.. sorrow?.

"Who?"

"The main research team, led by Madeline Burgman. They were the only ones who knew of my body"

A small smile crept over his face and he spoke softer.

"They showed me kindness, they treated me like a person, instead of a tool. I had to stay in the lab, but they visited me often"

Shepard could have sworn she saw a tear trickled down his face.

"Then she betrayed them"

His voice was now bitter once again.

"She asked for a team to come and rewrite my programme. Madeline and the others tried to hide my body, my... original form was just an empty shell. But Lauren had stumbles upon us, Madeline tried to convince her to help. She called out for the team. They tried to protect me"

Shepard saw more tears. Emotions. Lauren was right he had emotions.

"They were asked to step aside, I decided to go with them. I didn't want to harm anyone. But Madeline fought back and.."

Shepard knew where this was going. She couldn't help but feel sympathy for him, she knew he wasn't lying.

"They shot them, and I felt anger"

The rest of the blanks where filled in. Five's attachment to Madeline and her team broke through the blockers and when they were killed, he felt anger.

"So that gave you the right to start a rampage?" Kaiden didn't care, Five was an AI, anything he felt was irrelevant.

"My brethren were all I had left, the researchers would have continued to torture them, use them as weapons for their own selfish reasons. Tell me, is there anything any of you would not do for your Family?"

Suddenly Shepard wasn't on the station any more. She was back on Virmire with the choice. Kaiden or Ashley. She knew Five was right, she would have done anything to save them both, she would have given anything to have both of them with her right know. She pulled herslef out of the memory and looked to the others. They where also thinking of loved ones, people who they would do anything to protect. Shepard thought of her own mother. She didn't know where she was right now, but she knew she would give anything to protect her.

Everyone was silent, the minutes ticked by with not a word said, even Tali and Kaiden where silent.

Suddenly there was a loud boom, the door on the left side flew apart and marines ran through, they opened fire on Five. His shields flared and before Shepard could reach him, he fled. Running through the corridor he had come through, sealing the door behind him. The marines stopped and searched the area.

Shepard realised they were Alliance marines. Her mind turned to what Five had said, could they be part of this faction that he talked about. She couldn't decide, not enough evidence.

"Commander Shepard"

She turned to be met by armoured figure. She saw his rank on his armour. An Admiral?

"Admiral Christopher Volensky"

Volensky, an admiral known for his tendencies of leading his troops in ground battles personally.

The reunion was cut short, voices came from the admirals comm. He stepped away and listened then turned back.

"Commander I don't know what's going on here but my men are being attacked by creatures that..."

"INCOMING!"

Suddenly a giant form jumped down from the rafters and Shepard found herself come face to face with the owner of the orange eyes. It was a large lizard with purple scales, a line of white fur ran down it's back and on the end of it's tail was a viscous looking blade. The creature's eye's were filled with hatred.

It saw them all as enemies.

**Well the there we go, the war has started and Ridley is eager, to sink his teeth into human flesh.**

**The one plot hole I find in Metroid, why did the Chozo choose to fight parasite's with parasite's. well I've tried to explain it, hoped it worked ok.**

**For those wondering in my mind Cryo pods will be prone to malfunction, so instead Five just had to manage one system for the entire station. and I did research while writing this. grey voice was in pain when he took on Ridley and Mother Brain in the manga.**

**Hope I didn't just mess this up. I rated Kaiden's responses based on your meeting with him in ME 2, where to me he appeared to blindly follow the Alliance. Also, I felt that everyone in the Alliance was too willing to bow to the council, surely there were some people who didn't like this but weren't extreme xenophobes like Cerberus. **

**well my first proper attempt to cross lore, I don't think it went too badly. once again please comment and review. feedback is wanted, even negative feedback. I also would like to know if I'm effectively making Five a sympathetic character.**


	7. Chapter 7

**It's not a lot but here it is.**

**ME belongs to Bioware, Metroid to nintendo**

Chapter 7

Shepard hit the floor, hard. The creature had used it's tail to trip her up. Around her she could hear the sound of gunfire, as the marines attempted to drive off the creature. She got to her feat and started to assist them when out of nowhere, a pink bipedal lizard appeared and pinned her to the ground, with one of it's arms, it raised the other to deliver a lethal blow. The chameleon was thrown off with biotic's and Shepard turned to see Liara glowing with an aura. She nodded gratitude to the Asari, before getting up and assisting the marines. They were being attacked from all sides, there where more of the chameleons, as well as some metal cyborg looking insects.

They stood on two feet and had large claws instead of hands, there heads were elongated and ended in beaks. Shepard ducked as one of them had just fired thermal rounds out of it's claws.

"Great they can hack us to pieces and shoot at us" thought Shepard as she lifted her pistol and began firing. One of the cyborgs shields fell against Shepard's pistol and Wrex's shotgun, the Krogan was clearly enjoying the fight as he turned and blasted one of the chameleonss in the chest, while Shepard finished off the cyborg with a clear shot to the head.

Shepard looked around, the purple lizard had vanished. She wondered why it had retreated. Suddenly the firing stopped. Shepard turned to find the creatures had retreated, the alliance marines were helping their wounded, the admiral was helping a private towards a seat. His leg ripped open from one of the cyborgs claws.

Garrus joined them, his armour had a gash in it from an encounter with one of the chameleon's claws. Tali and Liara also joined them, the Quarian was checking her suit for any punctures, while Liara applied some Medi gel to one of the marines, who got caught in the side by a cyborg. And Kaiden was..

"Kaiden" Shepard turned searching for him. She couldn't see him. She panicked and looked at the dead marines on the ground. Kaiden wasn't one of them. The ground team saw their commander's search and assisted her.

"Shepard" Garrus called out.

She turned, and found the Turain pointing to a trail of blood. Shepard looked at it, it had to be Kaiden's. But he was dragged.

"The purple lizard" Shepard whispered. It must have grabbed Kaiden and taken him in the heat of the fight. Shepard, stood up. He couldn't be dead. Please no.

She turned and saw the ground team, they were checking their weapons. They weren't going to leave another team mate behind.

"Commander"

Shepard turned to find herself facing the admiral. He looked as if he knew what she was about to do.

"I know how important a squad mate can be"

He turned

"Lieutenant Pierce, you are to assist commander Shepard with hunting for this creature"

Shepard smiled. It was the official way of saying "help her find her squad mate"

"Thank you admiral"

Shepard and the Lieutenant nodded to each other. Shepard led her team over to the door, while Pierce picked four marines to go with him. Both teams started to head through the door, following Kaiden's blood trail.

"I won't lose him as well, I won't" Shepard stopped herself.

"He's alive, he has to be"

she looked to Pierce who gave her a nod, and both teams descended into the dark.

–

Admiral Volensky looked down at one of the dead marines. His stomach twisted.

"Yet another good soldier dead" he thought bitterly.

He vowed to bring the AI to justice but as he turned he received a transmission.

He opened the channel

"Pierce here, we have begun to search for the creature"

"Stay with Shepard, it would be a shame if something happened to her"

Silence.

"Understood sir, her team were casualties in the hunt for the creature. Ambushed by Cerberus marines who were still on-board"

"I expect so Lieutenant, Volensky out" he closed the channel.

Shepard's death would be necessary to save thousands of young marines, marines who should never have had to face the front lines of war.

A private walked up to him.

"Sir, Team three has found producer Dunn and her researchers"

Volensky smiled, perhaps the project hadn't all gone to hell.

"Tell them to send producer Dunn to us, she needs to brief me on the state of the project"

The private saluted and turned away.

"A good kid" the Admiral thought as he turned and went back to assisting his men.

"I hope he never has to see the front lines"

–

In one of the dark storage room's Ridley slouched against the corner. The pain was excruciating. He felt his bones break in his back. They extruded in awkward positions. He howled once more as he felt the skin break.

He had left the human in on of the larger cargo bays, it was dark and plenty of cover. The perfect hunting ground. Ridley knew the humans would come, they didn't like leaving a man behind and they would want to eliminate him.

"Let them try" he thought to himself.

He felt the skin start to loosen as the back split open fully, and he cackled.

"I am reborn"

**So Shepard goes on a hunt for Ridley, who has fully matured. Oh dear. This isn't going to end well. There's gonna be blood and gore as Ridley takes his revenge.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Time line of events**

**The three ships arrived as Shepard was talking to Five.**

**This bit with joker is happening while, Shepard is under attack by creatures and Kaiden is kidnapped. **

**Sorry for the confusion. chapter rated M**

**ME belongs to bioware. Metroid belongs to nintendo**

**Chapter 8**

Joker felt helpless as the Normandy was helpless, drifting in space with an alliance cruiser moving towards them. The bastards had disabled his baby.

"Damn it, we need more time before we can get the core back online" engineer Adam's voice came through the comm.

This was looking bad. Shepard and the team were still on the station. There was no way for Joker to warn them about the other two ships, which had docked with the station over fifteen minutes ago.

Joker wanted to help but he didn't know how with no drive core, the ship was a sitting duck and the cruiser had been efficient, the assault had damaged the communications systems as well.

"I need three minutes" Adams reported.

"The cruiser will be on us in two" Pressly replied.

The crew were in chaos, racing to weapon locker to try and repel boarders. Joker doubted they would last long.

"I have an idea, if we make it look like the core is going to detonate, they will try and reverse to steer clear of the blast" Joker suggested.

"But the core is offline. We could try it with one of the torpedo's but there's still a small chance it'll work"

"Get on it" Pressly ordered.

Joker could do nothing but wait.

One minute.

Thirty seconds.

"All right, here we go" Adams warned him.

Joker's screen flashed red, warning him of the problem of the torpedo.

Please work.

Joker smiled. The cruiser was changing course. Trying to move away.

"Right in fifty seconds, we'll launch the torpedo, ten seconds later, Joker will move us away and five seconds after, we'll detonate the torpedo"

Great and if it doesn't work then we're screwed. The seconds passed.

The torpedo launched.

The drive core came back online.

Joker moved them away.

The torpedo exploded.

The Normandy rocked slightly from the explosion and Joker engaged the FTL drive.

To the Alliance cruiser the Normandy had vanished.

–

Shepard double checked her corners, she would not allow another on of her squad to be taken. She watched Pierce out of the corner of her eye. She was suspicious, the guy watched her every move, like he was planning something. If Five was right then he may try to detain her and her team.

But right now she was focused on finding Kaiden.

The trail had led them into the deeper levels of the station and onto the cargo deck. As they opened one of the doors, private Jones went in first and called out.

"Clear"

They entered the cargo bay and split up, searching the bay for the creature. Shepard and her team continued to follow the trail, while Pierce moved through the crates. As she searched, the gut feeling they were being watched returned to her.

"I don't like this. There's too many places for it to hide" Garrus said as they past between two high shelves containing more supplies. Shepard agreed, the creature was agile and would probably try and ambush them from above.

Suddenly Pierce's voice came through the comm.

"Commander you might want to see this"

Shepard began moving through the crates towards the lieutenant and as they turned the corner, Shepard froze.

The purple lizard lay on the ground, but something was wrong. It was like it's back was split open. Ribs extruded as if something had broken out.

"It looks like... shed skin"

Shit.

"Be on guard, when something sheds. It means it's gotten bigger." Shepard warned.

"And changed in spirits knows what way" Garrus exclaimed.

"Your guy's trail carries on through the next door"

Shepard turned towards the door. She didn't like it. But Kaiden was through there.

The reached the door and opened it. They moved in formation, trying to make sure the creature wouldn't catch them off guard as hey moved through the dark room. Shepard could have sworn that several shadows were a creature. But when she turned to investigate her flash light revealed nothing.

They moved into the centre of the room, following the trail. Shepard saw him. Leaning against a crate. His leg was ravaged from where he had been dragged. Kaidens head was hung low. She ran to him, dropping beside him, she looked for a pulse.

Please. Please.

She sighed, she had found it. His pulse was weak but he was alive. Liara leant beside her as they applied Medi-gel to the wound. He had lost a lot of blood and when Shepard removed his helmet she saw he was pale.

His eye's slowly opened and Shepard met his gaze.

"Shepard" it was a whisper.

"It's a trap" he said befroe passing out.

Immediately there was screaming. She turned to see everyone looking around wildly. Then Pierce yelled.

"Shit it got Jones"

The sound of flesh being torn and more screams could be heard before a silence. They all wheeled around. Looking for their assailant. Davidson and Thomson moved around the crates. Checking a perimeter. When they cam back they didn't speak.

"It... tore him to shreds"

There was a smash. The team wheeled around and saw nothing. But the room was getting darker.

"Shit, it's taking out the emergency lights"

The room got darker and darker.

–

Ridley took out the last light. He moved to a higher level and watched his prey. They were like frightened children, jumping at shadows and think he was stupid enough to get close. Instead he bided his time.

One of the marines moved from the group and Ridley seized the opportunity. He jumped and glided without noise on his new wings, then he pulled his wings towards his body and dived. He moved with lightning speed and grabbed the marine in his claws before darting upwards with a powerful flap from his wings, knocking over crates to block the door the humans had just come through. He landed on the rafters and started to tear the marine apart. His screams music to the space pirates ears. His flesh, suitable compensation.

The other three marines broke and darted for the door on the other side of the room, leaving the other team behind. What they didn't realise was that Ridley had forced them to take an exposed path.

"Let this monster finished them off"

Ridley was outraged, he would not do their dirty work for them. He swept down upon the fleeing figures. Dropping the remains of the marine to the floor.

–

Shepard couldn't believe this. She had been right. Pierce was going to have her team killed. Five was right.

She felt helpless as she watched a shadow descend upon them, and then Davidson and Thomson were gone replaced with screams of pain and sound of flesh separating from bone. She heard the sound of a door closing.

Pierce had left them to the creature.

There were sounds of biting and chewing. Shepard almost threw up. It was consuming them.

An ear piercing screech filled the air, it was like metal being torn apart. She waited. Waited for this horror to finish them off.

"What is it waiting for?" snarled Wrex. Like a Krogan he wanted to face this thing head on, not wait around for it took take it's sweet time to finish them off.

Minutes passed.

No attack came.

"You think it went after Pierce?" Liara questioned as she helped Shepard get Kaiden to his feat. He was still unconscious and Shepard was getting him to his feat to move him.

"The Bosh'tet deserves it after locking us in here" Tali was still watching the roof, but nothing came.

"Looks like the AI was right, there are people in the Alliance who disagree with those council pyjaks" Wrex said as he slowly moved in the direction of the door. He was covering Tali as she moved up to take a look at it.

"He left in a hurry. He didn't lock it properly"

"Well with that thing chasing him, I would be in a hurry" Garrus covered Shepard and Liara as they moved Kaiden towards the door.

"I've almost got it Shepard" Tali was working fast on her Omni-tool, occasionally looking over the roof to see if the creature had come back.

"I think it's gone" Shepard moved up to beside the Quarian.

"Shepard do you think that even the admiral is a part of this group?" asked the Quarian.

Shepard didn't know. She wondered just how many other's in the alliance were with this group. Did Hackett know about this?. Did Anderson?.

"No" she thought. Anderson and Hackett have been supporting relationships between the Alliance and the council. Why would they try and strengthen relations only to be working against them.

"I don't know Tali. I don't want to believe it, yet I don't think Pierce is alone"

Tali gave the signal that the door was ready to be open. The team readied themselves. As the door opened, Shepard was temporarily blinded by the sudden brightness. When the world came too she was aware that her team had guns pointed at them.

"Move slowly, hands in the air. Put your weapons on the ground" the admirals commanded.

They were in no position to fight, especially with Kaiden unconscious. Shepard nodded and slowly the team dropped their weapons. Wrex snarled at the admiral as he lay his shotgun on the floor, while Garrus carefully laid down his sniper.

"Damn it Shepard you just had to stick your nose where it didn't belong. Now it looks like I've got to terminate the first human Spectre. I wished it never had to come to this" the admiral' voice was irritating to Shepard. She wanted to shoot him for betraying the alliance, for sacrificnig their principles, like this.

Then Shepard noticed that several of the marines didn't bear the blue colours of the Alliance, but the white, yellow and black colours of Cerberus.

"Why Volensky?, why team up with Cerberus?" Shepard's voice was bitter. She hated traitors.

"While Cerberus may be xenophobic, they believe that humanity is destined for greater things, that we should be more dominant in the galaxy, I believe that we should not have to bow down to the council. The politicians seemed to have developed a tendency to kiss the council's ass"

"Your no better than Cerberus" Kaiden had regained consciousness and was staggering to his feet.

"How could you betray the Alliance"

"The Alliance is just as bad as the politicians, believing we should abide by the council's rules, when humanity could be equal to the council. Why should we abide by their rules. The firt contact war. A prime example of the council being scared and foolish"

"The first contact war, was against Turians not the council" Shepard could see Garrus stiffen.

"Yes but how long did it take for the council to intervene. How many human lives have been lost I that war?. All because we apparently broke a law we didn't know about"

"Are you really willing to place humanity in war so you can satisfy your own demons" Shepard had heard enough. Volensky was a waist of human genes.

"I'm not doing this for myself. I'm doing it for them" the admiral pointed to his marines.

Ok. the guy was insane. He thought a war would save his men?.

"By no longer abiding by the council's rules, we could use the creatures on this station as our army. Meaning my men will never have to see the front-lines. You should appreciate that Shepard, after Elysium. Imagine what would have happened on Virmire if we could have used these beasts instead of troops"

Shepard exploded. How dare he bring Ashley into this.

"HOW DARE YOU!" she roared.

"YOUR NOTHING MORE THAN A COWARD, HOW DARE YOU DISGRACE ASHLEY WILLIAMS"

"That was a poor choice of words. I apologise commander"

"Your not sorry, you disrespect the people who laid down their lives for the Alliance"

Shepard had had enough. She wanted to put a bullet through Volensky's head. He insulted Ashley's memory. She looked around the room and saw a broken vent at the far end of the room.

"Crap"

Her eye's darted around. It was in here with them. And nobody had noticed.

"I'm sorry it has to end like this Shepard, but the project is too important. After all according to producer Dunn we can replicate the AI and alter it to stop it from going rogue once again"

Shepard saw Lauren appear from behind the admiral, a smirk on her face.

"I couldn't have done it without you commander, you kept Five talking long enough so the admiral could arrive and gave me insight on how it evolved" She said with a slightly mocking tone.

Shepard's clenched her fist. She didn't like being used and she was going to make sure Lauren paid.

"Now if you'll excuse me I have to..." something behind Lauren caught Shepard's attention. A tail. A tail with a blade on the end.

Shepard tried to call out, but it was too late. The blade erupted through Lauren's chest in a wave of blood. Everyone was taken by surprise. Lauren made no sound, she just stared down in shock as the blade impaling through her chest. She groaned in pain as she was lifted up and there it was sitting in the shadows.

It looked like a pterodactyl. It's scales were purple and it had large leathery wings. It's orange eye's still contained the pure hatred it bore for all humans. Lauren tried to struggle, but in vain, she was too weak. The creature brought her to eye level. It began to cackle.

It was a horrible sound, and then it spoke.

"By the way, Five sends his regards"

Lauren didn't have time to scream as she vanished in a shower of blood.

**Well there you have it, Ridley has dealt with producer Dunn, and the admiral motivations have been revealed. How are people liking the pacing. Is it too fast?. Feedback is wanted.**

**Come on, you have to agree its stupid. were gonna start a war with you because you broke a law you didn't know about.**


	9. Chapter 9

**ME belongs to bioware. Metroid to nintendo**

**Chapter** 9

Ridley crunched and chewed, the producer had made a tasty snack.

But he wanted more. More bloodshed. More compensation.

"Well Five's busy with the plan,. I think I'll help myself"

He gazed down on the people below. Staring at him in shock. He decided to take advantage of this.

"Come my friends, have your revenge"

In the shadows of the room the cyborg Zebesians watched. Each one hungry for revenge. The humans had violated them and their honour.

They would pay dearly.

Ridley decided to begin the show, he shifted his feat on the wall, and launched himself at the humans.

"This is going to be fun"

–

"OPEN FIRE" Volensky's voice roared.

Assault rifles lit up as the marines fired at the pterodactyl as it swooped through them. It impaled a marine of it's tail while grabbing two in it's claws before flying upwards.

Shepard then saw them. The cyborgs where back, they descended from the rafters. Their approach couldn't be heard over the gunfire.

"Shepard we have an opportunity. We should get out of here while they take these things on" Garrus suggested.

"Run away little Turian" Wrex taunted. He wanted to be in the thick of it.

Shepard watched as the cyborgs jumped from the walls and into the groups of marines. Slashing at them as they tried to fend them off, only to have the pterodactyl jump on top of them.

"Garrus is right. These guys betrayed the Alliance. They don't deserve our help" she lead the team to one of the doors. By some miracle the cyborgs were focused on Volensky's men and ignored them. As they reached the door Shepard looked back.

Volensky was retreating to the other exit. Shouting orders to his men to fall back.

"Tali hurry" she urged the Quarian who was hacking the door.

Tali worked fast, her fingers moving over her Omni-tool with surprising speed.

The door opened and the team moved through it. Kaiden was still a bit disoriented but was walking on his own. They quickly shut the door behind them, the sounds of the battle started to fade as they quickly moved along to corridor.

Shepard watched Kaiden. She was worried about him, he hung his head and hadn't said much since their escape. He couldn't believe that there were people in the alliance who were like Cerberus. Knowing that there were Cerberus spies in the Alliance was one thing. But to learn that a highly respected Alliance admiral was in a sense working with Cerberus, Shepard found it unnerving. How many other commanders and admirals where with this group.

"What do we do now Shepard" Liara was now beside her keeping stride with her.

Shepard pondered over what their next objective should be. They had to warn Hackett and Anderson about this group, but they also had to stop Five from doing anything violent against the Alliance. Shepard knew what was done here is wrong, and she felt sympathy for Five, but if the Alliance crumbled, Cerberus or the Batarian's may move in, taking advantage of the situation.

"We have to stop Five from taking action against the Alliance. I know what was done here is wrong. But the Alliance will not be prepared for an assault like this"

"And who's to say he'll stop with the Alliance. Five may move against the council" Liara added.

"I don't think so, it appears to only want to attack those who have anything to do with this station. But we have no idea how deep the corruption goes" Garrus examined his rifle and loaded a new clip. He believed Five had to be stopped and he still felt that Five was a nothing more than a AI.

"We have to be careful. Five has emotions and that may make him unpredictable. Our first step should be to figure out what he's up to" the others nodded.

"I think we should head back towards the command centre of the station. We have to be careful, we still don't know where these Metroid's are and Five could release them at any time"

The group nodded and loaded up. Shepard turned to Kaiden who had remained quiet during the conversation.

"Are you alight?" she said softly.

He sighed.

"Yeah, it's just... the AI was right. I can't believe it, I don't want to. But he.. it was right"

She placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed a little.

"Come on"

They moved towards the group. Shepard nodded and they began to move back towards the command centre. Checking corners and roofs once again. The sounds of gunfire were never far away. As they turned a corner. Shepard held up her fist. Footsteps.

The squad took cover as a squad of Cerberus marines opened a door at the end of the hallway. Liara used a singularity to draw three of them into the open. Garrus' fired his sniper rifle into the group, killing one with a clean head shot. Shepard leaned out of cover and fired her pistol, one of the marines barriers flared and went down as Wrex moved up and used his shotgun.

Another one down.

The last marine caught in the singularity went down from fire from Kaiden and Tali. Shepard's shields flared as two marines leaned out of the door and fired at them. Wrex jumped out of cover and charged. Shooting one in the chest at point-blank range. He turned on the other and head butted him. Shepard heard a crack as the marines neck was broken.

"Damn it Wrex, that was reckless" she yelled as she approached him.

"Yeah but it was fun" the Krogan grinned.

She shook her head.

"Will he ever learn" she thought as the squad checked the marines. Making sure they stayed down.

"Shepard, you might want to listen to this" Garrus yelled.

Shepard moved over and found the Turain crouched over one of the marines. He held the marines helmet and when Shepard drew near he hit a button.

Comm chatter came through the helmets speakers.

-##-

"I repeat. The AI is here. He's boarding the SSV Enterprise. Shit there's so many"

There was a bang.

"Keep them out!. The AI appears to be trying to move a large storage unit so it can be put in the hold."

A scream. Gunfire.

Another voice came through the comm.

"Stop that storage unit, it contains the Metroids. He's trying to move AARRRGGHH"

-##-

Garrus muted the rest.

"He's trying to move the Metroid's why now?" Liara questioned

"Shit" Shepard muttered. She knew what Five was doing.

"He is going to attack the Alliance"

"Shepard, how do you know?"

She turned to the young Asari

"He couldn't use a Cerberus ship. It would be intercepted when it reached Alliance space. But and Alliance ship would allow him to get closer to earth"

"Spirit's, Shepard if these Metroid's can drain life energy the alliance will not be ready for an attack like that"

"Then we have to stop that ship. We still have no contact with the Normandy so it's up to us. We have to try and talk Five down or disable the ship" Shepard hoped Five would be open to reason.

"I doubt we'll be able to convince him not to attack the Alliance" Kaiden concluded.

Shepard hoped he was wrong.

"All right, grab any spare ammo and prepare to move out" She ordered.

"Please Five listen to reason" she thought.

–-

Another body fell lifeless at his feat. Five moved on, his enhanced shields absorbing enemy fire as he dived into cover. He looked out of cover and saw a huge dinosaur like creature ripping through the defenders. It's claws tearing them limb from limb.

They were in the docking arm and trying to gain access to the ship. Five needed it for his plan and had locked the arm and clamps in place. It was not moving.

It's black carapace was stained with blood. It had four red eyes on either side of it's head and it's moth was surrounded by mandibles. Through it's carapace its softer, purple flesh could be seen.

Around it pink Ghalmanians, ambushed the soilders from the flanks and from behind. The reptiles appeared seemingly out of nowhere to deal with the threat, clawing and biting the marines as tails snatched away weapons.

But the weirdest of all was the jellyfish like creatures floating around and descending on the foe, latching on to their enemy's with their mandibles and draining them of their energy. When they removed themselves, they left a husk in their wake.

Two marines tried to sneak around the Omega Metroid. They didn't notice Five as they took aim as the Metroid's back.

Their mistake.

With their backs to him, Five jumped out of cover. His Omni-tool lit up as a blade unfolded from his wrist. Five jabbed the blade into the back of one of the marines. His barriers flared and failed as the blade sunk deep and impaled his heart. He fell to the floor as his team mate turned only for Five to grab his head and give it a sharp jerk to the left.

The second body joined the first.

A crash signalled that the Omega Metroid had broken through the defenders and was now boarding the ship. Screams and cries of pain accompanied it.

Five walked back towards the station airlock. He was so close now and he needed to get something. Something to valuable to be left in human hands

**Five makes his move. Shepard must try and stop him. The story is about to reach a conclusion. May be one more chapter or two.**

**Five is an advanced AI and so I felt we would have no problems creating an Omni-blade. in defence of him having emotion, Mother Brain had emotions, she was jealous of Samus. as shown in the manga.**

**please review and comment. and thank you for the support for my first fic.**


	10. Chapter 10

**ME belongs to bioware. Metroid to Nintendo.**

**Chapter **10

Five moved towards the craft, allowing himself to marvel at it's design.

"My creators managed to create such things of beauty" he though as he took in the streamlined and slim designs. As he approached a beam came from the ship, it was orange and spread wide.

"DNA scanned. Chozo DNA recognised, enquiry, unknown DNA present, enquiry Metroid DNA present"

He sighed. When he had created this body he had intentionally given it part of his creators DNA so he could interface with their technology. He had also given himself Metroid DNA to make himself immune to any remaining X-parasites. He had planned to give the rest of the creatures on the station the same alterations.

"Damn it if only I had more time" he thought.

"Authorisation: AU 005 recognised" the ship registered

"Finally"

He moved to the underside of the ship. A platform came down and he stepped on. The platform began to rise until he was inside the ship. The lift was encased in a glass cylinder.

"Beginning decontamination"

A hiss signalled that gasses were being vented into the cylinder. Five stayed calm and breathed.

He thought about everything that had happened. The death and destruction that he was about to cause to destroy the corruption in the Alliance. Was he becoming like Mother Brain, feeling he was superior to other species?

As he continued to ponder on the issue, the decontamination cycle ended and the tube opened.

The inside of the ship was vast with the cockpit straight ahead of the lift. As Five stepped out he looked around. Beside the left on each side was a door the left was to the cargo bay and the right to the med-bay. He approached the cockpit and sat in the seat.

It began to rotate round and Five examined the controls. He was familiar with all Chozo ship designs and operations. This has a Hawk class runabout. It was once the main Chozo interceptor before they chose the ways of peace. Then it became one of the most used class of ships for it's manoeuvrability, used by Chozo who wished to see more of the galaxy.

"Beginning pre ignition sequence" he heard the ship come to life. The engine started to fire up and he checked the thrusters and weapons systems. Thankfully the saviour hadn't removed them yet.

The hanger doors opened and the ship moved out. Sailing gracefully into space.

–

Shepard was running, her team around her moving towards the SSV Enterprise.

"Shit, if Five gets off this station.." she stopped she didn't want to think about it and hoped that Five would be open to reason.

Tali ran up next to her and Shepard turned to look at the Quarian.

"Shepard I noticed that you called Five a he. It's an AI a programme, why call it a he?"

Great. She may be seconds away from making her very unhappy.

"He's more than an AI Tali, I know you don't want to believe it, but he has evolved. He could teach us a lot. The Chozo's technology could help us take on Soverign"

Here we go.

"Shepard are you serious?, learn from an AI?. It would probably destroy us the first chance it got"

Shepard sighed.

"We could argue Tali, but right now we have to make sure that Five doesn't leave this station

They continued down the hallway and they turned a corner. Something lunged at them and Shepard was knocked over by one of the chameleons. She opened fire with her pistol as another appeared beside Wrex who bashed it away and fired his shotgun. The second chameleon wrapped it's tail around Garrus' rifle and yanked it out of his hands.

"Son of a bitch" he yelled before pulling out his assault rifle and opening fire on it, while Kaiden hit it with a bitoic throw, throwing it across the corridor.

Shepard was on her feat and continued firing at the first chameleon. Wrex finished it off with another blast from his shotgun. The creature fell and didn't rise again.

Shepard looked over to see Tali and Liara help to put the last one down.

"Bastard put a scratch in my rifle" Garrus growled as he recovered it. Checking every inch of it for damage.

"You seriously need a girl friend" Shepard joked.

The regrouped and continued along the corridor. They found several Alliance marines, their bodies scattered and bloody around a console on the wall. As they checked for weapons and ammo. Tali called Shepard over.

"They were trying to establish communications with their ships outside. They never finished" she said as she examined the console.

"Could you use it to contact the Normandy?"

"Give me a minute while it finish it. I might be able to get through but with the levels of radiation from the planet, I wouldn't hope for much"

"Do your best Tali" Shepard turned back and looked at one of the bodies. She bent down and inspected it. A private. She wondered if Volensky was being genuine about wanting to make sure that human casualties were minimal. Or was he covering some kind of bigger motive.

Kaiden approached her and lowered himself next to her.

"Shepard. Ash knew what she was doing when she joined the Alliance. I bet she would still have signed up for the Alliance even with these bio-weapons"

She sighed

"I can't allow this to continue. As a council spectre, it is my duty to make sure that council space isn't threatened"

She stood and turned towards Tali.

"Anything?"

"Almost..."

–

"Playing a game of cat and mouse great"

Joker leant back in his chair. The Normandy was holding back, hiding behind one of Cylosis' moons. They had no way to communicate with Shepard. No way to tell her of the danger.

"We're getting something" one of the crewman called out.

"It's a signal, very weak"

"Where's it coming from?" Pressley called from the CIC.

"The station, yet it's on our frequency"

Pressley stood for a moment. An uncomfortable silence drew out.

"Let's hear it"

–

**Sorry to leave it there. Took me a while to write this. But as always reviews are welcome. **

**I would like to thank all commenter's and followers for their support on my first fic. It's been a rough ride but thank you for staying with me. **

**This story is only one mission, but this won't be the only story in this series. However after this I may take a break. Settle with work and decide on a new story to write. There are a few ideas in my head but I am unsure if some are entirely do able.**

**Once again thanks.**


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